S.H. Figuarts Sadako Yamamura

The Creepy-Crawly Spook From "Ringu"...

A new BigBadToyStore.com pre-order listing holds quite a surprise for horror fans: a S.H. Figuarts Sadako Yamamura, the creepy-crawly spook from the 1998 Japanese horror film, Ringu. Scheduled to arrive this July priced at $49.99, the S.H. Figuarts Sadako Yamamura stands slightly over 6 inches tall when posed upright and comes fully articulated for tons of creepy-tastic poses. The figure also includes extra hands and lower body parts. Perhaps best of all, she comes with a TV set to emerge from! Her legendary videotape is also included (in scale to the figure).

Attentive collectors may recall NECA had plans for a figure of Samara Morgan (prototype pictured above), the spirit seen in the 2002 U.S. remake, The Ring. Unfortunately, that figure never materialized due to licensing issues (a different license mind you - Ringu and The Ring are two separate licenses). Curious to whether NECA had any plans to try and resurrect Samara (because I know fans would be asking!), I went to Randy Falk, NECA's Head of Product Development, to find out. Sorry, but there are no plans. In a nutshell, Samara's time has come and gone, The Ring simply is not popular enough now (in the U.S. anyways) to go through all the trouble with licensing and production (especially when it didn't work out the first time).

Knowing how the Japanese love their yūrei, I can definitely see Ringu's Sadako being much more popular overseas as a collectible. But now thanks to oversea importers like BigBadToyStore, interested U.S. collectors have an opportunity to own her too.